Mitsubishi PX33

The Mitsubishi PX33 is a prototype passenger car built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the company that would eventually give rise to Mitsubishi Motors. It was commissioned for military use by the Japanese government in 1934 and was the first Japanese-built sedan with full-time four-wheel drive, a technology the company returned to fifty years later in pursuit of motorsport success. Four working prototypes were built, and a version was under development with Mitsubishi's 6.7 litre, 70 PS 445AD engine, Japan's first direct-injection diesel. The whole project was cancelled in 1937 after the government decided to prioritise Mitsubishi's manufacturing capability on trucks and buses, and in the same year another Japanese company, Tokyu Kurogane Kogyo, began producing a smaller four-wheel-drive car, the Kurogane Type 95. The PX33 gained renewed attention as a marketing tool when the fourth-generation Pajero was released, and the two cars were displayed side by side at the Paris Motor Show in September 2006.